1925 Biography - Ashby P. Irwin

Ashby P. Irwin, president of the Bank of Clinton, which he helped to organize, and a farmer upon a very extensive scale, is one of the most representative men of Clinton and East Feliciana Parish, with whose history and development his entire life has been connected. He was born on a farm several miles south of Clinton, in East Feliciana Parish, that is now his property, February 3, 1868, a son of William S. Irwin, and a grandson of Thomas Irwin, who after years of successful operations as a planter in South Carolina died in that state. The Irwin family is one of the old ones of the country, having been established in South Carolina during Colonial days by its representatives who went there from Scotland.

William S. Irwin was born in South Carolina, March 17, 1818, and died on his homestead in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, in 1872. In young manhood he came to Louisiana and bought his farm seven miles south of Clinton, on which he continued to reside the remainder of his life, and where he was very successful as a farmer. In political faith he was a democrat. During the war between the states he served in the Confederate army, and while a soldier contracted dysentery, which disorder hastened his death. He married Letitia Kelley, who was born in East Feliciana Parish, March 22, 1827. Their children were: Louisa Jane, who was born January 12, 1845, died in infancy; John Thomas, who was born September 1, 1846, was a rancher and stockman of Brownsville, Texas, where he died in 1887; James Eugene, who was born November 21, 1848, died near Blairtown, East Feliciana Parish, in 1914, having been all of his mature years a planter; Emily Elizabeth, who was born April 30, 1851, married Capt. Robert Emmett Corcoran, a retired planter living at Slaughter, Louisiana, who served as captain in the Confederate army; Sarah Margaret, who was born December 2, 1853, and died at Jackson, Louisiana, in 1886, married Dr. Joe S. Jones, a physician, who died at Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Mary Arminda, who was born March 20, 1856, died on the family homestead November 3, 1878, and was the wife of Judge Frank Drake Brame, a distinguished attorney and jurist, a judge of both the parish and district courts, and died at Clinton; Jane Kelley who was born August 16, 1858, died on the old home farm in 1869; William Silliman, who was born June 7, 1861, died at Clinton in 1875; Emmett, who was born June 27, 1864, died at Clinton, having been a physician of note; Cora Belle, who was born November 3, 1866, married Thomas J. Malone, a rancher and stockman, and they reside at Skidmore, Texas; and Ashby P., whose name heads this review.

Ashby P. Irwin attended the private and public schools of his native parish, Centenary College for two years, and then for one year he was a student of Chamberlain-Hunt College at Port Gibson, Mississippi. At the age of eighteen years he left college, and from 1887 to 1891 he clerked in a store at Clinton, having had a previous experience in this line of work at Jackson, Louisiana, in connection with the drug trade. In 1892 he embarked in the drug business at Clinton, and conducted the leading drug store in this locality until in July. 1921, when he retired from this field. With others he organized the Bank of Clinton, which was opened for business August 13, 1897, and he has ever since continued to be a stockholder of it. After a few years he was placed on its directorate, and in 1914, was made vice president of the bank, and in 1916, was elected its president. Associated with him in the bank are: C. B. Trotter, vice president; J. C. Decuir, cashier, and Ashby L. Irwin, assistant cashier. The bank has a capital stock of $30,000, surplus and profits of $20,000, and deposits of $250,000. This is one of the sound financial institutions of this part of the state, and under the able and conservative policies of President Irwin its future is assured. Mr. Irwin owns a very nice and comfortable residence, set in a large and well-kept yard and garden, on Baton Rouge Street, and fourteen acres on the opposite side of this street; the old Irwin homestead of 403 acres, and 320 acres on the Wilson road, two miles west of Clinton.

During the World war Mr. Irwin assisted in all of the drives for different purposes, both as a bank official and personally, and did everything in his power to assist the administration in carrying, out its policies. He is a democrat, and was appointed mayor of Clinton by Gov. R. G. Pleasants in 1916, and is now filling his fourth term in this office. Under his fostering care the city has made consider able progress, and many improvements have been inaugurated. His religious affiliations are with the Clinton Methodist Episcopal Church. He is high in Masonry, belonging to Olive Lodge Number 52, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is a past master, and he is also a member of Perfect Harmony Lodge Number 18, K. of P., of which he is a past chancellor.

On August 26, 1891, Mr. Irwin married, at Skinner, Texas, Miss Emma Atkins, who was born in Bee County, Texas. She belongs to the Clinton Methodist Episcopal Church, the League of Protestant Women, and is president of the Woman's Missionary Society of her church. Mrs. Irwin is a daughter of Thomas R. Atkins, who was born at Dugout, Tennessee, November 17, 1842, and died at Beeville, Texas, September 20, 1914. In 1851 he went to Texas with his parents, and became a schoolteacher, editor of a newspaper and a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church. During the war of the '60s he served in the Confederate army as a sergeant. His wife bore the maiden name of Julia B. Gillett. She survives him and maintains her residence at San Antonio, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Irwin became the parents of the following children: John Thomas, who was born December 25, 1894. is with the firm of Finlay, Dicks & Company, wholesale druggists of New Orleans, Louisiana; Ashby L., who was born February 11, 1897, resides at Clinton, assistant cashier of the Bank of Clinton; Byron Aikins, who was born November 11,1899, resides at Shreveport, Louisiana, an attorney, and during the late war was a member of the Students Army Training Camp at the Louisiana State University, of which he was, during the war period, a student; Janie, who was born November 1, 1901, resides at San Antonio, Texas, and is the wife of John Chester Arthur, a bookkeeper; Letitia Juliet, who was born May 12, 1904 is a graduate of Silliman College, Clinton, and is living at home; and Elizabeth Margaret, who was born January 3, 1910, is a student of Mansfield Female College, Mansfield, Louisiana. Of the above family Ashby Lee Irwin saw active service in the World war. He enlisted in the United States Marines in June, 1918, at New Orleans, and was sent to France in October of that same year, with Company K. Eleventh United States Marines, and was returned to the United States August 1, 1919.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 322-323.